284 



ENGINEERING. 



ENGLISH CHANNEL TUNNEL PANIC. 



dangers of this rock-bound coast are increased 

 by the frequent fogs. The site was selected in 

 1878, but the sea was never calm enough to 

 permit of lauding until June, 1879 ; and then 

 the first men who landed jumped into the sea 

 to escape a coming storm, and were rescued 

 with life-lines. A man was able three days 

 later to get the measurements, finding that a 

 flat surface of 3,600 square feet could be ob- 

 tained by leveling the rock to the uniform 

 height of 90 feet. In September a mason land- 

 ed to plan the buildings, but he was washed 

 off and drowned. In October a party of quar- 

 rymen were landed from the revenue- steamer 

 Corwin, which was moored to a buoy in 25 

 fathoms of water. A cable was carried from 

 the vessel to the rock, by which men could be 

 landed in a breeches-buoy. It was many weeks 

 before the tools and stores could be landed, and 

 a shelter constructed. The work of excavation, 

 which continued through the winter, was very 

 dangerous. They held on to ropes while drill- 

 ing the holes, and always kept on the leeward 

 side to avoid being blown into the sea. In 

 January there was a storm which carried away 

 their store-house. The waves, breaking in a 

 chasm which divides the rock into two parts, 

 were dashed over the whole surface continu- 

 ously for several days. The men were nearly 

 starved before communication could be estab- 

 lished again with the steamer. The leveling 

 was completed in May, 1881. The excavated 

 rock was thrown into the chasm for the pur- 

 pose of closing it, but the largest fragments 

 were soon swept out by the waves. Work was 

 begun on the building in June. All the blocks 

 of stone were squared and numbered at As- 

 toria, and were landed from the steamer by a 

 " traveler " over the cable. The main building 

 is 48 feet by 45, with accommodation for four 

 keepers. Above it rises a stone tower 35| feet 

 high. In an adjoining building are steam fog- 

 sirens. The light is a white flash-light of the 

 first order. 



The recently constructed Darjeeling Tram- 

 way or Himalayan Railway unites the steepest 

 grades with the sharpest curves that are found 

 in any existing railroad. The road winds like 

 a serpent among the foot-hills of the Himalayas, 

 and ascends to the region of clouds, the termi- 

 nus, Darjeeling, being 7,700 feet above the level 

 of the sea. Some of the curves have a radius 

 of only 70 feet, while grades of 50 in 1,000 are 

 encountered. The total ascent in the 50 miles 

 of railroad is 7,400 feet, which gives a mean 

 inclination of 28 in 1,000. The gauge is two 

 feet. The rails are of refined steel. The ties 

 are two feet eight inches apart, with extra ties 

 tinder the joints, and for the sake of rigidity 

 supporting plates under the outer rails of all 

 the curves of 125 feet radius or less. The cars 

 are open ones of the lightest construction pos- 

 sible. The locomotives are reduced models of 

 the ordinary engine with tender. 



The steam-heating of towns is making prog- 

 ress in the United States, notwithstanding fre- 



quent and troublesome accidents which the use 

 of so unmanageable an agent as steam entails. 

 In the city of New York two companies have 

 laid steam-pipes through the streets in the most 

 thickly-built portion of the town. There, as 

 in other places, numerous mishaps have oc- 

 curred from the bursting of joints and break- 

 ing of flanges. The pipes are fitted with screw- 

 joints of wrought-iron. The system of fitting 

 invented by the English engineer, Perkins, has 

 not yet been tried. He surfaced the end of 

 one of the tubes and bevelled that of the next 

 one, so that when they were screwed together 

 in a collar the two ends cut into each other 

 and formed a metallic connection. 



ENGLISH CHANNEL TUNNEL PANIC. 

 The demonstration of the feasibility and com- 

 mercial profitableness of a submarine railroad 

 tunnel under the Straits of Dover was promptly 

 turned to account by the Southeastern Railroad 

 Company, the French Compagnie du Nord, and 

 other English and French capitalists. The in- 

 genious tunneling machine of Colonel Beaumont 

 (see ENGINEERING), and the experimental cut- 

 tings which proved the continuity and imper- 

 meability of the chalk stratum (see ENGINEER- 

 ING in preceding volumes), solved the engineer- 

 ing difficulties. Financial support beyond the 

 requirements was assured to the Channel Tun- 

 nel Company presided over by Sir Edward 

 Watkin. The French were eager to co-oper- 

 ate. When the work was already well under 

 way, its success assured, and nothing was want- 

 ing but the permission of Parliament, an agita- 

 tion was started against the scheme which 

 gained such strength that the work had to be 

 suspended until more sober counsels prevail. 



The objections to the underground passage 

 were purely strategic. The demonstration that 

 with the advances in naval art the "silver 

 streak," as the English Channel is figuratively 

 designated, could easily be overstepped by mod- 

 ern armaments, and an invading force landed 

 on the southern coast of England without 

 warning, at the rate of a regiment every five 

 minutes, instead of obviating, had really pre- 

 pared the way for the agitation of military 

 alarmists against the Channel Tunnel. When 

 the experimental operations proved to be a 

 definite success, and the time came to receive 

 the permission of the Government, orders were 

 given at the instance of Sir Garnet Wolseley 

 and other military authorities to stop the work 

 until the subject had been examined by a com- 

 mission. The Government had entertained no 

 such fears when Lord Derby, as Foreign Min- 

 ister, in a communication to the French Gov- 

 ernment, cordially approved the scheme in 

 1874. The French Minister of Public Works, 

 on the strength of the acceptance of the prin- 

 ciple of the tunnel, signed the convention with 

 Michel Chevalier, President of the French 

 Channel Tunnel Company. The scare had 

 already been started, but, when the note of 

 alarm was caught up by the press, it spread 

 among all ranks and conditions of men. Pro- 



